Emergency Sub Plans #MTBoS

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly BNogging Challenge, the post this week is on "Emergency Sub Plans"  Note: I missed last weeks on Teacher Hacks! 😕

I probably should do better about having Emergency Sub Plans. I do have something in a green folder in my desk - clearly labeled, of course. I remember they are a class set of equations to solve - perfect for many courses. I'm not sure where the actual file is, so I can't share that right now, but I will link it next week when I get back to the office.

What I will say about the assignment is that it is boring! It's just about 30 equations of varying difficulty that students are suppose to solve. Hey, if they are for an Emergency I want them to just quickly work to keep students occupied.

What I will also say is that in 11 years of teaching, I've never had to use them. I had one time (during my second year) where I was really sick and didn't make it into work, deciding at 4am I was too ill. I remember just tying out what the students needed to get done - what was in my plan already to do. This instance, I was out for 2 days and the 3rd day happened to be a snow day. But I returned that Thursday and just used the time to follow up on some of the topics. It seemed to be ok. So why go through the trouble?

Now, with some of the access students have to technology, I feel I can easily push something out into Classroom. Students would know what they were expected to complete. I'm organized enough that I know what I have planned at least a week ahead of time, so that makes it easier. I also trust that my students would be able to complete assignments without me around!

One other reason I don't feel putting Emergency Sub Plans together is a priority is because I work with an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING group!! My department is so awesome and we will always help each other out. We plan together and have documents posted in Google Drive. If needed, I can send a text to my team and they would be more than happy to fill a substitute in on what needs to happen for that day.

Organization OCD #MTBoS

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly Blogging Challenge, the post for this week is on "Everything Organization."

I am pretty organized! I actually am not as organized as I used to be before my daughter came 2 years ago, but I'm reminded often that my worse is still better than most best.

Emails: I struggle when I see people with numerous unread emails. I know they have a system that works for them, but it gives me anxiety sometimes - I can't have more than 25 emails in my box at a time. My system is: if it doesn't pertain to me, delete it and file away the email I've responded to that I need to save. What remains in my box is essentially the stuff I need to still do or respond to. This helps me to get those tasks completed so I can weed through my emails.

Papers and Files: I color code much of my stuff to help organize. ROYGBIV is my friend. I organize class periods that way and I organize course materials that way. For my course binders, I use a binder for each semester, with the courses going in order by color (Integrated Math 1 is red, Math 2 orange, Math 3 yellow, Financial green, Math Analysis blue, Department Chair is purple, and then AVID is Black). I still have some work in organizing my cabinet with all of them, but essentially I hardly ever use any of the books or information on the left side. Next to this cabinet is a huge corner cabinet - like so large I have to crawl into it to get anything in the back. In my 6 years, I still haven't figured out how to utilize it. In addition to my hard copies of materials in color-coded binders, I also organize my Google Drive Folders with the same color scheme.

Next to my computer, I have some folders that I file common student papers into. Papers to be graded, to be recorded into my gradebook (I keep a paper hard copy and then transfer scores into our online system), quiz corrections, assessments to be taken (for absent students), and then to-do folder.

Electronic Files: This is probably where I excel. I've always organized my files into folders. We've been a Google Apps district for like 6 years now. I was initially very resistant to using Drive since math doesn't work so well, but it has been getting better and catching up. Now that we have more teachers teaching a course, we use Drive to collaborate and have common files. As a Lead for our Math 1 and Math 2 courses, we organize our units with a Unit Plan. I link any documents or resources to it. It's like a one-stop shop for the team to get information, resources, and ideas from. My task this school year is to convert all of our Word files to Doc files. I'm about half way through both of those courses. With Financial Algebra, we used Drive from the start, which has been awesome and a life saver! I like to have as much as I can in electronic format since that helps to cut down on the papers I have to figure out how to file.

Classroom Space:  Several years ago I put up curtains on some side shelving. I keep some department supplies in 2 of them. The other 2 are student supplies - 1st one are whiteboards, erasers, and towels. The second set are more of the supplies - markers, glue sticks, compasses, protractors, scissors.

I have a clearly marked "IN" tray and "OUT" bins. And in between is where I keep the absent folder, Quiz Corrections Forms, and Request to Retest Forms. For absences, I place the name of the student on any work that was passed out and place it in the folder. I use to have a slip that went with it and stated specifics of what they missed, but I haven't used in over a year because the current course I'm teaching doesn't work that way - it's project based most days.

The past 5 years I've had my teaching station (doc cam) in the front corner - which was unusable space because of the angle to the board - and student desks arranged in groups of 4. This year I arranged things differently. I moved my DocCam to the back on a cart that I can stand at, then arranged the student desks into various table-top groupings (pairs, 3's and 4's). I figured it would provide students different situations to work in. The pairs are easily set-up to become a group of 4 when needed too.

I've taught AVID for a number of years, so that's why I have a lot of space decorated with Pennants. Last year I was lucky enough to have Seniors, so I started a wall for them with where they are going to college. It's a work in progress though - I have more students to put up, just haven't had the chance to work on it yet.

I'm sure I have more Organization Hacks, but for now this will have to do.

Financial Class Economy

Shortly after the 2016-2017 school year ended in June, I was continuing to reflect on our Financial Algebra course. I kept thinking what can we make better and how can we do it. I thought about how I didn't particularly enjoy how we did some of our banking unit - mainly checking (I also was over the project choice we had for them for that chapter). I decided I was going to tackle a modified class economy system for these high school juniors and seniors! So I spend all summer tackling and figuring out how and what to do. Here is what I have so far:

I had found a template online that I modified to make checks for student use. If students want to "purchase" something they may write a check. This would then give students practical practice with how to fill out a check. While my document has 16 checks, I've decided to only give students 8 of them. As one of the expenses, they may purchase additional checks (we have to buy them in the real world). Since I know we do not write checks for everything we purchase, I then decided to make a Form for electronic transactions. They can debit, transfer, or deposit funds. I figure it would be rare from them to transfer or deposit funds as these would be from another student, but I still wanted to give them that option. Students would be required to record all transactions they make on an Account Register. I was naive the first time teaching this course that this would be something easy for them - it wasn't! They just depend on the online bank to tell them what they have - ugh!!!! Getting students to keep track of this on their own will be huge.

While researching, I found Class Economy was mostly used in the elementary schools. We are not giving out jobs, but high school students are always told that school is their (unpaid) job. I decided that they would be paid minimum wage (currently $10.50 in CA) for the time that they are in class. Our class periods are typically about 90 minutes and we see the students every day (only for 1 semester though). So, they would be paid according to that, including all taxes taken out. Alice Keeler has a Send Comments Add-On Template (you can read about it here) that I was able to modify the Script so that I could have it email information like it was a Pay Stub (my Template). Once I have the students name and email in, all I will need to do is put in the hours for the pay period and I've programmed the cells to do the magic of the calculations! When it is pay day, I just need to push "Send Emails" and it should send the students the email with their pay information. I tested it a few times, but haven't officially run payroll for the class yet.

I just introduced it Friday to my students - it was a quick introduction. One class seemed pretty excited, though they were bummed when they asked if taxes would be taken out! The other class didn't seem as enthusiastic, but maybe that was because it was too close to the bell? I used this document to introduce it to them. It has links to my current expenses and fines, and student friendly language.

I'm just starting this journey, so hopefully I can update in a few months with some positive results. I also have thoughts of giving performance increases in October, followed shortly by some inflation.

Class Management #MTBoS #SundayFunday

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly Blogging Challenge, the post for this week is on "Classroom Management."

I just started my 12th year teaching. I never feel like I am perfect with Classroom Management and I have learned over the years which battles I am willing to fight. And the management I may have for my junior and senior class will not be the same I use with my freshman and sophomore class - they just are at different maturity levels.

When I was younger, I needed to come in with a pretty tough and strict approach. I look younger than I really am. Not a bad thing I know, but when you could pass as a high school student yourself, it makes it a little tougher to gain the respect of students. Being 5' 3" doesn't help too much either. I've spent years coaching soccer, so my coaches voice often carries into the class. I end up loosening up as the year goes on, but this is how I have usually had to start.

I'm sooooooooo lucky to teach where I do. I spent my first 6 years teaching in more challenging situations than I'm currently in. These past 5 years, I've been teaching at a Dual Magnet HS - it's a choice school so the student population is way different than our surrounding schools. I really do not have discipline problems. Maybe that's partly because my students know and understand my expectations, but I think mostly because the students we have are awesome!

What do I do?

Movement: I am constantly moving about that classroom. I read my first year teaching Fred Jones' Tools for Teaching and the Zone of Proximity was something that really stuck with me (here is another article about it). My projector is mounted on the ceiling and I'm able to connect it to my DocCam in almost any location I'd like. This helps me to have a teaching station, now in the back middle of the room, where I can roam and reach students quickly and efficiently.

Facial Expressions: This probably isn't good, but I say a lot with my facial expressions. When students start to get off-task or do something I do not approve of, I give them "a look" and they usually know. I don't often have to go past that, but if behaviors continue, then I take the student aside and talk to them.

Student Conferences: I talk with students often, so if I'm really having academic or behavior issues with students I try to conference with them individually. I want to narrow down what is going on with them and see how I can help to get them back on track. This seems to help the most. It takes time and I always try to do it so they aren't feeling on-the-spot with the rest of the class.

Last Straw: It take a lot to get me annoyed and to this point. If I've talked to the student several times and changed seating arrangements, and nothing seems to get better, I finally call the parents to discuss the issues and what I've tried. I try to figure out solutions with them because the next step is for me to write a referral - these really are rare, probably averaging only 1/year (with past 2 I've done for academic dishonesty!).

Like I said - I'm not perfect and as situations come up, I may handle them differently. On the positive side, with a 4x4, we get to start a new "school year" with each semester.

First Day Plans - Financial Algebra

The first day of school is just over a week away! Being on a 4x4 schedule that means we have to hit the ground running - especially in the fall semester. I have just 84 school days in the fall to get through tons of information (if you are unfamiliar, think college class schedule - you finish the course in a semester then start new course the next semester). This fall I will be teaching Financial Algebra (I absolutely LOVE this course and what we have done with it), and then planning out our Integrated Math 1 and 2 course for the teams (in the spring I will be teaching Math 2).

Note: I say it often, but I really am going to try to Blog more! So, I decided to get started with the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly Blogging Challenge. I feel like I have been working on butt off this summer trying to get courses organized and set for the first quarter. For the first time in like 5 years, we will be starting the year with the teachers that ended last - there is not a new math teacher in my department! As a teacher who had to move schools every year my first 7 years of teaching, I had always taken my new teachers in my department under my wings to mentor and make sure they felt comfortable and supported to do what they needed to be an awesome teacher. Obviously I will still support the teachers in my department, but I don't feel like I need to be there as much - they are amazing and they got this!! So, maybe that will free up the time I need to Blog? ... right???

The post for this week is "First Day Plans." The plan is to:

1) start by greeting students at the door. I also use this as an opportunity to help some of the "lost" students find the correct classroom. Last spring, my student teacher asked students to write about "what does it mean to be financially secure" for the warm-up, so I think I will ask the same thing. 

2) I think I may also want to have a brief discussion about what the students think this course will be about, then what would they like to learn about. This will lead into a little more about what it may actually be like. Some students really struggle with this being a Project based course, while others don't realize this course should be taken at the end of their high school math pathway - so I like to take just a few minutes to make sure I inform them about this.

3) Students are then going to grab Chromebooks and get into Classroom. We aren't 1-1, so we have 3 carts for our department. Sadly, we usually have 1 booked for most days for our Financial Alg. courses.

4) Once in, I'll make sure students know what resources will be available to them in the "About" section, then they will get started on the first 2 assignments!!

  a) the first is a Google Form that just asks for some information so that I can get to know them better. I browse through answers as they work on the second assignment so that I can make a more personal connection with them. 

  b) students work on a HyperDoc about Google Apps. Since we use Chromebooks and Google Applications OFTEN in our Financial Algebra class, it is very important for students to have a strong grasp of the apps. We also found that students didn't know some of the little things that we thought they should, so we wrapped almost everything into this document. They have this day and part of the next two day's to complete it. I like that this can challenge any student! Last Spring, we used a slightly different version and every student learned at least one thing new.

5) finally, students will be given a Twitter Student Profile sheet so I can get to know just a little more about them.

The second day, I'm hoping to introduce my Class Economy plan (I'm still working on some aspects in my head but I am sooooo excited about this and can't wait to write a post about it soon!), have students get a little introduction to Sheets, and then continue to work on the Google Apps document.

Crazy Busy Week

I realize I haven't posted in a while. I had made plans to post once a week with the happenings in Financial Algebra, and that just has not happened. But I'm super excited about this week and I wanted to share!

1) Tomorrow is Pi Day!!! And who isn't excited about that? This weekend I made my T-shirt for the day. Several years back I made one that said "Be Inspired" so I needed something different. I looked up words and really liked the word "Aspire" so then I had to figure out what to do from there. My colleague helped me and we came up with "Aspire 2 be the [delta] change"!! Over the years, our students have used the motto "be the change" so this fits in perfectly. This shirt is what I made for myself and colleague. I wish I had the time to let my entire department in on the shirt and make one for them, but time isn't always on our side. Regardless, I'm excited to wear this tomorrow.

2) Along with Pi Day, my math department is hosting a luncheon for our staff. This year, each month a department is hosting a lunch for everyone. So obviously we took March so that we could do 3.14 and make it everything circular. Our Math Club made Pi Day Facts that we can display at the tables and I had my peer tutors color a few of these Pi Coloring Pages I got for free at Teachers Pay Teachers. I also made copies of this Graphic Organizer and Pi Day Sudoku Puzzle, also free from Teachers Pay Teachers, that I plan to have out on the table for staff to grab.

3)  Midterms is this week! We are 3/4 of the way complete with the school year and 1/2 through this term. It is going so quick. So Thursday and Friday will be exams. I decided this time to try our online assessment system for the Midterm. I spent last week inputting all of our questions and then this weekend added them to my exam so that I can administer it online. I'm excited and nervous about this. I think I may make a few sets of paper copies for students that may need it, but I'm looking forward to not having to make copies of the test for students. I always feel like I'm wasting so much paper! 

With midterms at the end of the week, we are providing time the remaining days for review in our Financial Algebra classes. Today they did review problems. Tomorrow we are going to have them create test questions and Wednesday I'm going to use the test questions to create a Scavenger Hunt. With our 80+ degree summer-like temperature this week, I figured this will be a great way to get the students outside to enjoy the weather while having a different way to review. Here's to crossing my fingers it all goes as planned.

4)  With St. Patrick's Day on Friday, I found on Pintrest the link to these shamrocks. So I'm making one for each member of my department. I'm hoping I'll be able to find a way to sneak it to them without them knowing it's from me, but we will see. I'm just hoping they will get a little message about how great they are!

5) Finally, we are busy practicing this week for the talent show next week. The math department is getting together and doing a dance to a mashup. We just started practicing last week and we have about half the song nailed down. We will be spending more time this week gearing up for the big performance next week!

If you haven't figured it out yet... I have an absolutely amazing department. I love working with them each and every day!!

Financial Algebra Week 1 [and 2]

We are one week two weeks into Financial Algebra for this new term! Students seem to be excited about what we will be learning and have been actively working on stuff.

We decided to create a parent newsletter for each unit we are working on. We want the parents to become involved in the discussions with their kids, and this way they will have an idea of what is going on in the classroom, as well as what our next unit will be on. Here is Volume 1 of our newsletter. I'll update you on if it is successful or not at the end of the year!

The past few weeks we have been busy talking about some employment basics. We decided to focus the project on a career they were interested in. Students will be researching and writing a paper, giving a quick presentation, and calculating monthly pay net of Social Security and Medicare. They will use this career throughout the term and the salary will be used to calculate their net monthly income for their household budget for the final project. I'm hoping that the students are picking careers they are truly interested in and the research they are doing helps to affirm that choice! The project is due Monday night with presentations Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll keep you posted in the next post how everything turned out. I've included the Project Instructions here for anyone interested in what we are doing.

Up next, we will be starting Banking Services. I didn't really like what we did in the Fall - it was the first unit we did and we were still trying to figure things out. I'll be spending the next few days trying to figure out how we can make this unit better. I had my student teacher work on some project ideas and I'm meeting Monday with the other teacher teaching the course (she's the "we" I always refer to). I know we can come up with some great stuff for this unit.

New Year

It's the first of the year! In 2 days, I will be back at work and getting ready to the new term.

I'm excited to be teaching 2 sections of Financial Algebra again - I've learned so much the first time around and already have so many thoughts and ideas on how to make it better for the second time. That being said, I'm also finding that I am already overwhelming myself with wanting to create new lessons and repackaging old lessons. The past two weeks, I've spent many hours working on a HyperDoc to familiarize students with Google Suite (suited for High School students) and repackaging a career introduction (skills, interests, and abilities assessments). I think that I have finally got them completed! I'm still working on a document to go into Sheets (since we are doing finance, we use it often and I found the first time around that students had no experience with the application). And, I need to still figure out the details of our first project - career research. We did a different project for this unit, but with the additional time we have, we thought it would be better to really have students research the career they are thinking about since we will use it throughout the year. I'm hoping that I will be able to get them finished by Tuesday, but it isn't looking promising since the other 2 took so long for me to "perfect."

More time than I anticipated has been spent working on a strategy session presentation I volunteered to give. Back in November, I attended SDCUE and a session on HyperDocs. I had heard about them, but I wanted a better understanding. I had implemented a few in my class, and really enjoy the freedom it gives both myself and the students. So, I'm presenting a session about HyperDocs to any teacher that wishes to find out more! I finished my slide deck and thought that I was ready to go. But then I finished reading The HyperDoc Handbook: Digital Lesson Design Using Google Apps by Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis. I felt I could make it better. I thought, if I'm giving a presentation about HyperDocs, wouldn't it be best to example it with them? So I created a Form that could go with the session. I gave opportunities for participants to Explore, Apply, and Reflect. I ask participants to explore already made hyperdocs for their content area. Then I ask for them to include the hyperlink. I will have them apply by really thinking about a lesson they plan to do this spring that maybe they could repackage. Finally, they will reflect on the idea of HyperDocs. In having participants search and include a link to a HyperDoc, I wanted to make sure that information was available for teachers to access, so I created a new Sheet and used the ImportRange function so that only those responses from the form would be visible to anyone that has the link. It's simple, but I'm pretty impressed with myself in pushing this further. My hope is that my colleagues will push themselves so that we all can push the students to achieve more!

Now that I have procrastinated an additional half-hour on the lessons I still need to work on, my resolution for this Spring Term is to Blog at least once a week with some of the resources we are using for Financial Algebra. I think we are doing some awesome stuff, and while we haven't created everything ourselves, it would still be good for me to share what we are doing.